Does it matter if they are dead?

Cats may not be manâ€™s best friend, but theyâ€™re arguably something even better: manâ€™s key to instant Internet pageviews. Itâ€™s a long-established fact that Internet contentâ€”whether itâ€™s a cutesy video, a photoshopped inside joke, or aÂ longform public health articleâ€”has a better chance of achieving coveted â€śviralâ€ť status if it somehow evokes the sound of purring.

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But the reason that cats have catapulted to cyber-fame isnâ€™t purely biological: There are social factors at play as well. Steve Dale, a cat behavior consultant and pet journalist, told me that cat aficionados have been particularly drawn to the Internet because they lack other public safety valves where they can express their affection. â€śIn the world of cats, there is no dog park,â€ť Dale says. â€śFor cat owners, the dog park is the Internet.â€ť

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The most compelling explanation for our interest in cats, however, may be the most simple: weâ€™re in awe of them. Nagelschneider told me that weâ€™re inclined to watch cats climbing trees or walking upside down on walls because we wish we could do so ourselvesâ€”or, in her words, â€śWhen we are watching these videos, they just blow our minds.â€ť To whatever extent that’s true, it’s certainly worth a click.

I get tired of pictures on facebook of talking cats, cats do not talk. Thats the reality of it. What IS real is the fact feral cats get shot, and there’s a huge shortage of dead cats.

I’ve trained my dogs to nail any feline they set their eyes on, they haven’t got one yet but not through lack of trying.

Even our maltese/chihuahua x has dedicated her life to patrolling both ranch sliders in the house for hours on end in the hope she sees a cat, and when she does, by christ does she let me know, runs up to me barking with that ‘let me outside please dad’ look on her face, and out I let her. Since I trained her for cat patrol, the cat shit in the vege garden has dramatically dropped.

More dead cats please.

AzaleaB

I read WO daily but rarely comment…not sure why but feel compelled to defend the domestic moggy. Love dogs and love cats and have two of each on the farm. I like the independence of cats – they have achieved the ultimate con – do nothing and achieve almost anything. I am a willing participant in the con and all for a quiet purr and good company ( dogs too big to curl up on the lap ( 2 x labs). Also my cat is an awesome mouser and ratter with the occasional rabbit.

Pity you chose this as one of your rare comments after misunderstanding the blog post.

Lets go back to his first line:

” I get a lot of flack for posting pictures of dead feral catsâ€¦”

Did I read “feral”? yes, yes I did. Now, about that temptation to mock…..oh, too late.

Whalehunter

“The only click a cat is worth is the clik of the safety coming off.”Â
You are advocating the shooting of cats. ForwardedÂ to nzspca i’m sure they’ll be glad to know the identity of another cat killer.Â

Â Im with Cam on this one, please forward my name also. Oh, and while your at it, go through the many posts relating to that 16 yr old mongrel that raped the 5 year old, 95% of people want him shot too. Good luck getting the spca or police to get that to stick.

Travdog

forward my name too, when I was working for a possum trapping contractor I killed plenty of the cunts. A good cat is a dead cat. Feral cats were more vicious than possums when approached in a leg hold trap, fact.

Sometimes it was bloody hard to get a decent swing with the hammer as they were so savagely rabid.

I’m sure there’s plenty of native birds out there grateful for my effort.

FFS many animals carry diseases…let’s just ramp up the paranoia. I know this how? Used to be my career testing and indentifying these little gems. What about dogs? I know my lab likes nothing better than to swim in scum filled ponds on the farm, eat dead animal ( or shit) and then affectionately lick us all. Nice.

Â AnimalÂ = disease carrier in one way or another. And don’t get me started on birds…( winged ones).:)

http://voakl.net/ Ben Ross

Yep, animals carry diseases including the so called top order animal of the animal kingdom – homoÂ sapiensÂ sapiens

Wychbych

Â Going off all you calling for cat-killing… I get it, about the toxoplasmosis. WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS. Being clean will stop that problem. They don’t give us tetanus, like horses do, and they have largesse to shit all over the place! And don’t give me the ‘it’s good for the garden’ because the horses don’t shit in my garden; they shit all over the verges and roads.

I’m a responsible cat owner, mind you – he is indoors through the night (I figure if you can’t fend off a cat in daylight, as a bird, you’ve been selected to get out of the gene pool) and if our cat kills something, he eats it. He’s a bit of a psychopath (aren’t all cats?) and makes sure we see him dismembering his kill.

Cats don’t shit on our beaches, and have owners who think that’s their right.

Cats don’t kill kiwi in the alarming numbers that dogs do; oh yes, 95% of all kiwi killed, are killed by dogs.

Cats *do* use their tongue as toilet paper, though my mate who’s a vet said ‘dogs have a morbid appetite’ which sums up their rolling in corpses and shit-eating nicely.

kehua

You can add the financial loss on Sheep farms both from Toxo and also Campyllabacta another disease caused by feral cat shit.

Gazzaw

Cats bury their shit and don’t leave great steaming turds in parks and on beaches &Â grass verges. Haven’tÂ heard ofÂ too many disfigured kids eitherÂ who have hadÂ their faces rippedÂ off byÂ wandering moggies. There’s a time and a place for dogs and one of them isn’t sitting outside a cafe licking their balls whileÂ you’re trying to enjoy a coffee. Â Â
Â Â Â Â Â

Blair Mulholland

Dogs are socialist, left wing animals.Â They hunt in packs, they are dirty and smelly, they rely on each other for survival, they die without adequate attention and company, and they need a master to give them orders and tell them what to do.

Cats are capitalist, right wing animals.Â They are entirely self-reliant, fastidiously clean, they don’t take orders or let anyone tell them what to do, they are strong defenders of property rights, and they interact with others not because they need to but because they want to.

Only a dumbarse would shoot a decent, clean, individualist cat and keep a retarded, smelly, order-following collectivist dog as a pet.

Travdog

I have 3 dogs, none have been diagnosed with retardation by a vet. They follow orders, this is a pro, not a con. I suggest you might be suffering from retardation instead. Anyone with half a brain would prefer an animal that followed orders, pehaps you are lacking even half.

Cats are for lonely old bags whose family have disowned them.

For all those disgusted by dogs licking their balls in public, you’re either jealous, or need to harden the fuck up.

Gazzaw

Jealous cos I can’t lick them Travdog? Fucken hell I’m not a contortionist.

Harden up? No I don’t think so, it’s just not that edifying a sight when I’m tucking into my Sunday brunch & I’m sure most people feel the same way. Animals of any sort should be barred fromÂ eating places anyway.Â

Travdog

Brunch? oh, so you’re one of those. I’m a country lad. I only know breakfast, lunch and dinner. A country lad living in Auckland though, I might add. Never have I seen a dog at a cafe/eating place, a fairly rare occurance I’d imagine, and my fiance and I regularly dine out for breakfast. But I agree animals should be barred from eating places in public, not that it bothers me personally as I’m in control of which way my eyes are looking.

Travdog

Anyways Gaz, it’s all beside the point. The point is if people dislike Cam posting images on his own website of dead feral cats then they have the personal choice to refrain from viewing this site, I’m pretty sure you have the common sense to agree.

This reminds me of the stupid old bitch years ago that lodged several hundred complaints with the broadcasting standards authority about the content/language of the morning show on The Rock radio station. Utterly brainless nonsense by people that have nothing better to do.

Gazzaw

Never seen a dog outside a cafe? Don’t know what part of town you live in.
There’s even a cafe near me that even encourages dog walkers with a hitching rail & water bowls. Be selling Jimbo next. Mate, you should try doing brunch one day – they do it in the country as well, it’s not just a Jafa idiosynchrosy.

Gazzaw

Actually Travdog, I think that we are winding each other up here. I really like dogs – owned four in my life and not too far off getting another!

Travdog

Nope never seen a dog outside a cafe, either that or I’m so tolerant I haven’t noticed heh. I don’t take any of my 3 dogs in public, It seems a common sense decision, but then again they’re a family member/pet to me, not a fashion accessory, and this is what I think is the problem with some people. Leave ‘em at home.

kehua

Must be going blind Gaz.

Travdog

5 words from kehua, all of them meaningless. Knew the blogs most regular child rapist sypathiser would turn up sooner or later. Not much happening down in Turangi tonight I take it?

I agree that any dog running loose and out of control is a potential malice. Any animal should be kept under control. And yes, any animal is a collective organism of bacteria and viruses. Some of those can be harmful to other species like us, humans. And any animal shits somewhere. Cats often shit in my garden, half dug in, so I only find it too late when I am gardening… I find that even worse then dogs shit on the beach where at least I can see it.
And for the infection rate:http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/parasitic/toxoplasmosis.html#European websites have even higher figures to show.I am wondering however, whom of you protecting cats is in fact already under the control of this parasite….